Friday, October 10, 2008

Open Access (OA) is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.

Tuesday, October 14 marks the first international Open Access Day, which aims to broaden awareness of the OA movement through educational events around the world. The Duke Libraries will host two events on Tuesday, October 14, the first of which includes discussion by two Duke Law faculty members:

Duke Talks about Open Access2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Perkins Library (Room 217)Featuring James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law, Chairman of the Board, Creative Commons.Professor Boyle will focus on Creative Commons, an organization which is working to facilitate the free availability of art, scholarly and creative materials through online licenses that authors can attach to their work.

His talk will be followed by a panel of speakers from the Duke community who will share their perspectives and their activities within the Open Access arena:

Sir Richard Roberts, Nobel laureate, Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, US, and a member of the PLoS Biology Editorial Board

Philip E. Bourne, Ph.D. founding editor-in-chief of PLoS Computational Biology, Professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UC San Diego, Assoc. Dir. of the RCSB Protein Data Bank, Senior Advisor to the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Adjunct Professor at the Burnham Institute, and Co-Founder of SciVee

Both speakers will discuss how Open Access impacts research and will answer questions on this topic from participating campuses.

Throughout the day on October 14, the Duke University Libraries will feature short video clips on open access, provide handouts about author rights, access to research, and copyright available, and distribute OA Day buttons. The Law Library will provide a handout on Open Access initiatives at Duke Law, as well as sample contract language to preserve author's rights to redistribute published works.